NVIDIA Explains How Project Shield Began

Posted by Nathan Kirsch| Thu, Jan 31, 2013 - 2:11 PM

NVIDIA has shared details on how Project Shield came together and the people that made it a reality. The blog post NVIDIA published this week also covers a number of topics including the importance of streaming PC games and how the company had to rush to get Project Shield done in time for a launch at CES. NVIDIA’s Project Shield is something totally new for NVIDIA, so stop thinking of them as just a graphics card manufacturer as they have become much more than that. From what I can tell Project Shield was about making a ‘true’ gaming platform for Google’s Android OS and the NVIDIA Tegra processor series is what powers it. We all know the mobile market is huge and still growing, so it is clear that NVIDIA wants a piece of the pie. It also shows that Android gaming is only going to get better as time goes on. NVIDIA has done very well when it comes to PC gaming, so if anyone can take on mobile gaming it is them!

The story behind Project SHIELD is a tale of an idea as much as it is of a product. Jen-Hsun — NVIDIA’s intense, motorcycle-jacket clad leader calls that idea ‘speed of light’ (or ‘speedolight’ as he says it). The notion isn’t to hit impossible deadlines fueled by adrenaline and fried chicken grease. It’s to understand the limits of what can be done and work within only those basic constraints. “We couldn’t prove that it couldn’t be done,” says NVIDIA Senior Vice President of Content and Strategy Tony Tamasi, who has quietly led NVIDIA’s interactions with game developers for more than a decade. “So we decided it could be.”